Award for second patient overdosed at London teaching hospital
Aidan, who is now 26, developed pain in his groin in early 2007. He visited his GP and was referred to a specialist who diagnosed him with testicular cancer.
Aidan was referred to UCLH for chemotherapy. Aidan was advised about a number of chemotherapy regimes to treat the cancer, including the TE23 trial that the hospital was part of. Aidan enrolled on to the trial.
Under the trial, patients were randomised into two groups. In the first group patients would receive standard chemotherapy treatment involving the prescription of bleomycin, etoposide and cisplatin. This is known as “BEP” chemotherapy.
In the second group, an experimental regime involving five drugs, namely bleomycin, cisplatin, etoposide, carboplatin and vincristine, was prescribed. This is known as “CBOP-BEP” chemotherapy.
The trial, was investigating whether CBOP-BEP chemotherapy was more effective than BEP chemotherapy.
From April to July 2007 Aidan made regular trips to UCLH, to receive CBOP-BEP chemotherapy.
At the end of Aidan’s treatment on the CBOP-BEP regime it was discovered that he had been massively overdosed with one of the chemotherapy drugs, bleomcyin, which can seriously effect lung function.
The mistake was only realised as another patient that had been receiving CBOP-BEP chemotherapy at UCLH at around the same time as Aidan, had also been overdosed. Sadly that patient died as a result of the bleomcyin overdose. Mark won compensation for the deceased’s estate.
As a result of Aidan’s overdose he began to experience shortness of breath, likely to have been caused by an overdose of bleomycin.
Aidan instructed Mark Bowman to pursue a claim against UCLH after he read about Mark’s previous successful claim against UCLH.
Mark investigated a claim against UCLH and alleged that Aidan had suffered shortness of breath as a result of the negligent overdose of bleomycin.
In May 2011, only four months after Mark had been instructed, UCLH offered to pay Aidan £15,000 compensation, which he was happy to accept.
"I was very happy with the way Mark acted on my behalf. I was kept up to date with everything that went on and it was dealt with quickly and in a very professional manner."
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